Farmers open farm-to-table cafe
The brisket and mac and cheese pie fly out of Meat to You’s cabinet at lunchtime.
The new cafe in Bell Block, New Plymouth, which opened in January, focuses on bringing meat to customers directly from the farm.
Co-owner and farmer Shane Mcdonald said the beef used in the pies and sandwiches all came from their family farm, which was less than 10km away from the cafe.
The Mcdonalds owned about 100ha spread over two farms in Lepperton and Paraite, where 200 beef cattle grazed, Shane said.
“We walk [our cattle] to the slaughter, we process it and we bring it down here.
Shane said that on the farms, they focused on producing low food miles and on reducing the stress on the animals by avoiding transportation on trucks.
Inside the cafe, customers could buy steaks and mince from a deli section, as well as Reuben sandwiches and mince and cheese pies from the cabinet, he said.
“The low food miles effectively means that ... you could buy some steak here right now that lived and grazed 2½ kilometres away.”
He said he was born and raised on a dairy farm in Stratford, which was his grandfather’s farm, but was more interested in beef.
While raising cattle for decades, he became frustrated by not having a direct link to the customers who would buy his meat, he said.
“You spend a lot of time and effort rearing the cattle, and then the only real option you have got is to send them to a commercial slaughterhouse or to the sale yards, which we don’t like doing.
“We felt there is enough people out there that want a connection with their farmer or their produce.”
So he decided to cut the middleman, register an abattoir on the farm, and deliver the produce directly.
First, he started selling the meat from a chiller on the farm, he said, but it was open only on Fridays and Saturdays.
Then the Mcdonalds decided to open the cafe in Bell Block, to showcase their Taranaki produce and serve it inside burgers, sandwiches and pies, the 52-year-old farmer said.
Co-owner and manager Kylie Mcdonald said customers could also order their food online and then pick it up from the café.
“At half past seven in the morning, we’ve got people ordering mac and cheese pies to make sure they get them when they come in,” she said.
The food was prepared in a food truck attached to the cafe, and the meat that did not come from the Mcdonalds’ farm was sourced from Taranaki producers, such as the goat meat sausages and the pork ribs.